Scardinius

View from The Hill: 'Player' Mike Pezzullo undone by power play

Retrieved on: 
Monday, September 25, 2023
Heart, Department, Senate, Politics, Suggestion, Policy, Nine Entertainment, Morrison, Head, Parkinson, Government, Scardinius, Running, Department of Home Affairs (Australia), Hand, Liberal, Operation Sovereign Borders, Mobile phone, Management, Pezzullo, Labour

He dissed ministers in the way of these interests or those (and other people) he didn’t rate.

Key Points: 
  • He dissed ministers in the way of these interests or those (and other people) he didn’t rate.
  • He used Briggs to seek leverage with the then PMs, asking for his opinions to be passed on.
  • Nine says it learned of the messages “via a third party who obtained lawful access to them”.
  • He can perhaps be partly understood by referring back to the so-called bureaucratic “mandarins” of decades ago.
  • They ran their departments with iron grips, and in some cases were, or tried to be, as powerful as ministers, or more so.
  • (In a 2021 Anzac Day message to staff Pezzullo caused a public ruckus when he wrote of “the drums of war” beating.)
  • The player obsessed by security has been undone by some unidentified power play that has left him totally exposed.

We can and should keep unemployment below 4%, says our survey of top economists

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, August 13, 2023
Unemployment, Employment, Royal Economic Society, University, Social security in Australia, Area studies, NAIRU, Policy, Reserve Bank of Australia, Julia Gillard, OECD, Center, Economic Society of Australia, Government, Scardinius, Treasury, Labour, Dependent and independent variables, Climate change, Reserve Bank, Uranium mining, Employment agency, Ridesharing, Renewable energy, Cryptocurrency, Tutoring, Industry

The median (middle) response was higher, but still below official estimates – an unemployment rate of 4%.

Key Points: 
  • The median (middle) response was higher, but still below official estimates – an unemployment rate of 4%.
  • Significantly, only two of the economists surveyed picked an unemployment rate of 5% or higher, which is where Australia’s unemployment rate has been for most of the past five decades.
  • Australia’s unemployment rate dived to 3.5% in mid-2022 and has remained close to that long-term low since.
  • Geopolitical events and climate change have probably pushed up the rate of inflation to be expected from any given domestic unemployment rate.

3.5% unemployment, yet falling inflation

    • Craig Emerson, a former minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments, said NAIRU was best described as the lowest unemployment rate consistent with inflation not taking off.
    • Given Australia’s inflation rate is now coming down, NAIRU is clearly below the present unemployment rate of 3.5%, he argued.
    • This is the case at present, suggesting “full employment” means an unemployment rate of 3.5%.

Fix education, job-matching and childcare

    • There was very little support for cutting immigration or the JobSeeker payment.
    • The unemployed who would benefit the most would be those further down the queue who were the least successful in finding jobs.
    • Another, Brian Dollery from the University of New England, said much of Australia’s unemployment had been generated by unemployment benefits that were too high.

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Labor president Wayne Swan on the party's coming national conference

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, August 10, 2023
People, Liberal Party, Labour Party, Policy, Australian Labor Party National Conference, Julia Gillard, Leigh, AUKUS, COVID, History, Government, World, Scardinius, First, Essay, Income, Australian Labor Party, Growth, Liberal, GFC, Video game, Nightclub, Labour

Next week the Labor Party will hold its national conference in Brisbane.

Key Points: 
  • Next week the Labor Party will hold its national conference in Brisbane.
  • In this podcast we talk with Wayne Swan, the Labor Party National President.
  • But for most of our history, Labor parliamentary caucuses, Labor prime ministers, Labor leaders of the opposition have worked within the confines of the platform and that’s where we are today.
  • On the conference issues, Swan says:
    I certainly think there’ll be a debate over AUKUS and I hope there is.

Labor and the Greens don’t get along. Here’s why

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Carbon, Human, Hypersensitivity, Housing, Failure, Senate, One Nation, Politics, Coalition, Domestic violence, Policy, Woman, McKim, Government, Scardinius, Coal, Time, RN Breakfast, First Nations, City, Climate, Racism, Liberal, Labour, Skin, Legislation, Life insurance, Renewable energy, Agriculture, Auction, Security (finance), Airline

Relations between a centrist Labor government feeling its way and an ascendant Greens party have become surprisingly strained of late.

Key Points: 
  • Relations between a centrist Labor government feeling its way and an ascendant Greens party have become surprisingly strained of late.
  • A current flashpoint is Labor’s housing policy, or, as the Greens would describe it, Labor’s failure to square up to a full-blown rental affordability crisis.
  • But it faces a difficult future with the Greens flagging they will join with the Coalition in the Senate to vote it down, insisting it lacks ambition.
  • Such bitterness might seem curious given both Albanese and Wong hail from Labor’s left, the faction closest in values to the Greens party.
  • For its part, the Greens bristle at being labelled “ideologically pure” – a tag clearly intended in the pejorative sense.
  • This succeeded despite the Greens grumbling that the mechanism amounted to trying to put the climate fire out while pouring petrol on it.
  • “The Greens are an anti-racist party, the Greens are an anti-hate party,” he told Radio National Breakfast following the allegations.

Ghost Energy Drinks Deceptively Marketed to Kids

Retrieved on: 
Monday, December 12, 2022
University, Health, Advertising, Food, Marketing, FDA, Minor, Impact Confections, FaZe Clan, Diet, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Scardinius, Sport, Candy, Doctor of Philosophy, Education, Food and Drug Administration, Ageing, Anxiety, Indian Medical Association, Growth, Research, Nutrition education, Social media, Social stigma of obesity, Policy, Federal Trade Commission, Energy, American Medical Association, FTC, Dietary supplement, Toy, Ghost

TINA.org and the Rudd Center’s investigation found that Ghost is using candy brands popular among children and young teens, including Swedish Fish, Bubblicious, Sour Patch Kids and Warheads, to flavor and package energy drinks and supplements that are only intended for adults.

Key Points: 
  • TINA.org and the Rudd Center’s investigation found that Ghost is using candy brands popular among children and young teens, including Swedish Fish, Bubblicious, Sour Patch Kids and Warheads, to flavor and package energy drinks and supplements that are only intended for adults.
  • These efforts have likely contributed to Ghost’s explosive sales growth over the past year in the increasingly competitive energy drink industry.
  • This material information is relegated to illegible fine print inconspicuously placed on the energy drink cans and supplement containers.
  • Ghost is not the only energy drink company targeting minors by co-branding with popular candy brands.

eCapital Corp. Hires Amanda Rudd as SVP, Director of Business Development - Freight Factoring

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Cargo, CMA, SVP, CPA, Scardinius, Amanda, Transport, Growth, Bibby Financial Services, Commercial finance

MIAMI, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- eCapital Corp. ("eCapital"), a leading alternative finance provider in North America to small and medium-sized businesses, today announced that it has named Amanda Rudd as SVP, director of business development for its Freight Factoring Division.

Key Points: 
  • MIAMI, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- eCapital Corp. ("eCapital"), a leading alternative finance provider in North America to small and medium-sized businesses, today announced that it has named Amanda Rudd as SVP, director of business development for its Freight Factoring Division.
  • Rudd brings more than 13 years of expertise providing accounts receivable financing to small and large trucking companies and freight brokers.
  • Rudd was previously senior group manager for a large freight factoring company and worked for Bibby Financial Services and Bibby Transportation Finance, which were both acquired by eCapital in 2020.
  • "I know she will be instrumental in driving our continued growth for the Freight Factoring Division."

Ezell's Famous Chicken and DoorDash to partner on Rudd's R.U.B.B. Initiative to financially empower Black-owned businesses

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Sysco, DoorDash, Black, Growth, Community, African Americans, Partner, Entrepreneurship, Pacific Northwest, San Diego Chicken, Black-owned businesses, Fund, PepsiCo, Violence, Partnership, CEO, Color, Tasia Valenza, Organization, Education, Scardinius, Ezell, Airline, Health insurance

(Raising Up Black Businesses) Initiative, a precedent-setting initiative designed to financially empower Black-owned businesses.

Key Points: 
  • (Raising Up Black Businesses) Initiative, a precedent-setting initiative designed to financially empower Black-owned businesses.
  • Initiative will have a very positive impact on small Black Owned Businesses," Lewis Rudd said.
  • Initiative that aims to financially empower Black-owned businesses and help them grow," said Tasia Hawkins, Social Impact Program Lead, DoorDash.
  • This initiative is only the beginning of a legacy project designed to continue supporting Black-owned businesses for years to come.